Basic Guide to Computer Backups

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Basic Guide to Computer Backups

• Eric Moore
• Computer Users Group of Greeley
• September 13, 2008

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Why Create a Backup?

• Any hard drive will eventually fail
• Data recovery from a failed hard drive is
  expensive!
• Restoring a deleted or corrupt file is not always
  possible
• Your data may be time-consuming to recreate (if
  even possible)
• You depend on your computer for your livelihood
• You need to keep multiple revisions of a file

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Backup Media

• Internal Hard Drive
• 500 GB of storage
• About 0.20 per GB
• Fast backups and restores
• Not portable!
• External Hard Drive
• 500 GB of storage
• About 0.20 per GB
• Slower than internal hard drive
• Portable
• CD-R
• 700 MB of storage
• About 0.23 per GB
• Portable
• Inconvenient for multi-GB backups

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Backup Media (cont.)

• DVD-R
• 4.7 GB of storage
• About 0.05 per GB
• Portable
• More convenient than CD-R
• DVDR Double Layer
• 8.5 GB of storage
• About 0.14 per GB
• Portable
• More convenient than DVD-R
• USB Flash Drive
• 4 to 32 GB of storage
• About 2.50 to 3.00 per GB
• Greatest Portability
• Pricey

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Backup Methods

• File and Folder Backup
• Select group of files and folders
• Less time to perform
• Less storage space
• For small, daily backups of your data
• Drive Image
• Entire partition or hard drive
• More time to perform
• More storage space
• For complete restoration of your computer

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Types of Backups

• Full Backup
• Incremental Backup
• Differential Backup
• Copy Backup

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Full Backup

• Captures every selected file and folder
• Marks every item it touches as being backed up
• Requires the most space and time

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Incremental Backup

• Captures files and folders created or modified
  since last full or incremental backup
• Marks every item it touches as being backed up
• Requires less space and time to complete
• Requires more time (and care) to restore

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Differential Backup

• Captures files and folders created or modified
  since last full backup
• Does not mark anything as being backed up
• Requires more space and time than an incremental
  backup
• Requires less time to restore

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My Recommendations

• Method and Media
• Disk image for greatest safety in case of
  disaster
• External hard drive and/or flash media
• Frequency
• Full backup at least once a month
• Incremental or differential once a day
• Redundancy
• Create copies to different media
• Store at least one encrypted copy off site or
  online
• Test for Reliability
• Verify scheduled backups are actually run
• Try restoring some files and folders